How We Did It:

We encouraged vendors to offer products that are third party certified by Green Seal or EcoLogo, and that are process chlorine free, or have other environmental attributes.

To ensure we receive high quality products at a competitive price, we undertook a two-step solicitation process. In the first step, we pre-qualified products meeting our environmental and performance standards. Next, we issued a low-cost bid for only those pre-qualified products.

We involved a variety of stakeholders in evaluating the quality of the products, including janitors and building occupants.

Challenges:

Some employees had previously expressed concern about the quality of the recycled content paper towels and toilet paper used in our restrooms. We addressed these concerns by using the pre-qualification process which allowed a variety of stakeholders to participate in quality testing during the product evaluation phase.

Benefits:

Using post-consumer recycled content supports recycling programs for office paper, junk mail and newspaper; saves trees and other resources like energy and water; and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

Products that are process chlorine free reduce pollution caused by chlorine, and third party certified products are audited to meet wide variety of environmental standards.